Lieutenant Jennifer Richardson
Name Jennifer Suzanne Richardson M.D.
Position Chief Medical Officer
Rank Lieutenant
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 37 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5'7 | |
| Weight | 142lbs | |
| Hair Color | Mousey Brown | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Jennifer is not a person who overly cares about her appearance. She will pull her hair back into a ponytail rather than fuss and is as comfortable in jeans and a shirt as she is in her uniform. Her hair reaches the middle of her back. When you look at her face, your eyes are instantly drawn to hers for their unusual colour and habit of portraying the emotions she tries to hide deep. |
Family
| Spouse | Captain David Richardson (deceased) | |
| Children | None | |
| Father | Neil Collins | |
| Mother | Barbara Collins (Deceased) | |
| Brother(s) | None | |
| Sister(s) | None | |
| Other Family | Brother In Law - Peter Richardson |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | In her personal life, Jennifer can keep to herself alot. She is in no way introverted, she would just prefer to sit in and read, or spend time dancing in a holodeck, rather than go out partying. If the situation calls for it, she will willingly join a group of friends for a night out, but she wouldn't do this on a regular basis. In her business life, Jennifer is seen to be very approachable. She has a strong empathy with patients, whether it be a child with a bump or a grown adult missing a limb. She encourages the people she is assigned to look after, should they feel the need, that she is available to them 24/7, whether they require physical or mental Doctoring. Despite how she presents herself in personal or business life, Jennifer should never be underestimated. She does have a temper which is extremely rarely seen but when brought up, she can very easily let it be known that she is not happy. feature on her face. Pale skinned, her arms and face are scattered with freckles from time spent in the sun. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Amongst Jennifer's strengths, she counts her devotion to the medical sciences and keeping up to date with all of the medical journals. This enables her to always be up to date with new treatments, medications and procedures so she can be fully able to decide on a course of treatment for her patients. Her past has also taught her to always be strong and persevere no matter the situations she found herself in. This could be situations in which she needed to emphasise with patients who were struggling or even situations in which she may have been hurt and needed to bounce back. This has been most important to her in the loss of her husband. Jennifer’s key weakness is her temper. Known to flair when upset or hurt, it can take her a time to be able to get it back under control and 99% of the time she will feel guilty about what she perceives as a loss of control. |
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| Ambitions | Jennifer’s current concentration is completely on her new role and how to better herself to make a good medical officer. She currently has no higher aspirations as she is just trying to find her footing in life. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Reading, Swimming, Dancing, Horse Riding |
| Personal History | Born in 2338, it had always been her parents intention that she would be their only child. They were careful how they raised Jennifer, never spoiling her and raising her to know herself and to take nothing for granted. As the age of 12, Jennifer’s mother passed away after a very short battle with cancer. Having always been closest to her father growing up, her mother’s passing impacted her, but through the strength of having each other, both Jennifer and her father went on living as they knew Barbara would have wanted them to. Her father was a civilian Doctor, operating out of the local medical centre. Jennifer grew up surrounded by his patients and as she got older he used to gently encourage her to actively help with anything from administration to just learning the tools of his trade from a standard 21st century stethoscope to the 24th century dermal regenerator. It was during this time that Jennifer realised she shared her Father’s devotion to the job he did but she wished to spread her wings, to go further afield. At a late age, 22 to be precise, Jennifer had finally decided that she wished to go down the route of Starfleet medical. It was one of the hardest choices she would make in her life as it would take her away from her father but he couldn’t have been any more supportive in her decision. Neil wanted nothing more in life than to see his daughter spread her wings and see the universe. In 2360, Jennifer finally enrolled in Starfleet as a medical cadet, fully embracing the four years of education which came with it. She aced all courses, her medical background and age giving her a slight advantage over the other students; something which in normal situations may cause people to resent her but Jennifer’s personality drew people to her. She was also always willing to help others if they came to her with questions or she noticed somebody struggling whom she knew would welcome the help. Graduating with the rank of Ensign in 2364, Jennifer had a choice of what she needed to do her internship in. The usual were thrown her way; pediatric, surgical, obstetrics all areas her lecturers were quick to point her towards but one area in particular grabbed her interest, combat medicine. With the growing civil war, the demand for front line medical staff was growing on an ongoing basis, with the Federation loosing the battle the need to patch their men and women and send them back out was growing. The idea of working in a live setting, with ongoing unrest and battle being probable stirred an excitement in her that she wished to try and grab with both hands. The placement would allow her to dip her toe into different aspects of medicine such as amputation, triage, emergency surgery, etc. With the aid of her mentor, Doctor Fionnuala Gardiner (her lecturer in emergency medicine); Jennifer was placed on USS Nightingale, the frontline for medical recovery. Jennifer was to work under their chief medical officer Lieutenant Commander Jessica Field as a medical officer for four years in order to fully qualify in emergency/triage/combat medicine. In 2366, two years into her internship, a federation colony had been ambushed resulting in casulities of both civilians and officers. The USS Nightingale was the closest ship and dispatch to provide aid to the local federation population. Nedical was scrambled to save who they could. Jennifer herself was assigned to one Second Lieutenant David Richardson...as the rank explained David was a a marine. Although the enemy he was found on the colony boundries injuried and the humanitarian effort of the USS Nightingale meant that they could't turn their back. The marines injuries meant that he had been left for dead. Shrapnel had embedded into his chest, lodging itself into the right ventricle of his heart. Every pump of his heart flooded his lungs with blood. The only reason he even made it to the surgical table was because the recovery team had ensured the shrapnel was not touched in anyway. On the table he flat-lined twice and each time the team tried to persuade Jennifer to back off but she refused to give up. She managed to stablise his heart until a transport could be arranged to the nearby Starbase 264 where the team took over and performed a cardiac replacement, replacing his human heart with a parthenogenic implant. Jennifer was part of the team that stayed by the marines side during transport. David was in and out of consciousness the whole time, his lung pressures low (causing his breathing to be erratic) because his heart struggled with each beat. Each time his would come around, it was Jennifer’s face that he saw. When they reached the base, Jennifer was given two days leave before she would be needed back. The medical staff of the base took over the care of David but they allowed her in to visit him after his operation. Still in those days after, the marine was weak but everytime he opened his eyes he looked for Jennifer...she may have been the enemy to him but she had saved his life. Once back at base, Jennifer settled back into life; her thoughts sometimes turning to David but she tried to put him out of her mind as he was now gone. Transferred back to Earth for rehabilitation to get him back on his feet and incarceration in Federation's penal colony for acts of war against the federation. Jennifer kept in touch with his progress, getting regular updates from the medical teams in the penal colony. Inbetween, she would sometimes get personal correspondence from him also; but still she tried to keep a distance, not wanting to get close because there could be no future...he was the enemy. At the beginning of 2366, the correspondence stopped, causing Jennifer to feel like a gap had grown in her life. She tried to make enquires to find out if something had happened but she was blocked because she wasn’t family nor wife. In 2370 Jennifer finished her inter-ship, granting her the full title of Doctor and a promotion to Lieutenant J.G. During the promotion ceremony, a familiar face was in the crowd, David. He had managed to persuade the Federation to free him to attend the ceremony on two conditions...one that he would give them the insider information they needed in order to gain an advantage over the Militarists; and two that he would renounce his involvement with the Militarists and become a citizen of the Federation. After seeing first hand how the Federation saved lives as easily as they could have ended his, like how former colleagues had done to Federation people; David realised that perhaps the whole time he had spent it on the wrong side. Seeing David again brought back memories Jennifer had pushed back on. During those days where she had kept him alive, she had grown close to the man; a closeness she had forced herself to ignore because she realised a patient and Doctor could never be anything more beyond the fact that a relationship between a Federation officer and a known militarist would have had her outcast from the Federation. She had fooled herself into believing the visits she made were out of concern for a patient and not for someone she cared about. In the next two years, David and Jennifer grew closer with no barriers in their way until in 2372 David asked her to marry him. He confessed that before he had left Earth he had contacted her father and paid him a visit. He had told explained to Neil about their past and told the man that he intended to ask Jennifer to marry him within a year. David had told no lies and only been open and honest...he was a changed man...anything to be with the one he loved. Neil had given his blessing...something which sealed the deal for Jennifer. After all the time they had wasted, Jennifer and David were married within two months of the proposal by the Nightingale's chaplin, Jennifer’s father joining them via a live comm-link. Life was uncomplicated for them both over the next 2 years, as uncomplicated as it can get for a Doctor and a defected Militarist in a war zone. Whle both striven to spend as much time as possible together the nature of their situations also meant that they equally spent time apart. Neither were pushed to start a family, they felt that the time wasn’t yet right and they have their lives ahead of them. Jennifer's commitment to her jobs saw Jennifer promoted to Lieutenant in 2372 and also to the position of Assistance Chief Medical Officer and David continued with his work with the Federation to try and help infiltrate the bowls of the Militarist organisation. Soon after David earned his own promotion, life was to fall apart for Jennifer. One night in 2373, the ship got word of a massive attack by militarists on a strategically key Federation station. If they could bring down the base, the damage they would inflict on the Federation would cripple them. The Nightingale was moved into place in order to evacuate all non essential personal and injuries. It was only once they moved into place...seeing first hand the damage inflicted on the station and how it had been reduced to scrap that news filtered through that David was listed as having arrived at the base two days beforehand to meet with Federation Admirals. The Nightingale spent days, scanning and searching for wreckage that may have kept an individual alive; pockets of air that may have allowed individuals time to be rescued. But most of all...the assistance in the retrieval of bodies of those who had been gunned down in cold blood. Inevitable the Nightingale had to redraw...while they managed to rescue a handful of people, children included, David was not one of these. Through days of fighting through blood, sweat and tears...Jennifer was forced to realise that he was lost to the cause...a cause which had stripped her of her chances of being happy. At this point Jennifer’s life fell apart. She was granted undefinate widow’s leave which she used to run back to Earth, into the arms of her father. Jennifer stayed there from 2373 to 2375, helping her father in his own surgery and refusing attempts of contact from Starfleet. She couldn’t face going back, she had lost all she had. Eventually Starfleet took matters into their own hands and visited Jennifer in her own home, in the presence of her father. They had a proposition for her, an opening onboard the USS Alliance as the Chief Medical Officer. Before she was to start, she was to spend a number of weeks helping with the medical needs in the camps on Bajor; a planet still stricken from years of war. Jennifer's experience with combat medicine was to help the camps but also to further help her with the USS Alliance's mission. First Jennifer resisted, trying to keep her feet firmly on the ground with her father but her father pushed her back. Neil had watched Jennifer become a shell of who she once was. He knew she needed to get back out there or risk that she would forever lose who she once was. After days of discussions, Jennifer finally gave in and accepted the position, uncertain of what the future would offer but knowing it would be empty without David. |
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| Service Record | 2360 - Admitted to Starfleet Academy 2360 - 2361 - Cadet Freshman - General Studies - Starfleet Academy (San Francisco Campus). 2361-2362 - Cadet Sophomore - Basic Medical Studies - Starfleet Academy (San Francisco Campus). 2362-2363 - Cadet Junior - Intermediate Medical Studies - Starfleet Academy (San Francisco Campus). 2363-2364 - Cadet Senior - Advanced Medical Studies - Starfleet Academy (San Francisco Campus). 2364 - Graduated Starfleet Academy with the rank of Ensign and entered into internship. 2364-2368 - Ensign - Medical Officer - S.F.M.C. Tuscarora. 2368 - Completed internship and promoted to Lieutenant JG 2368-2370 - Lieutenant Junior Grade - Medical Doctor - USS Nightingale. 2370 - Married David Richardson 2371 - Promoted to Lieutenant 2371-2373 – Lieutenant- Assistant Chief Medical Officer - USS Nightingale. 2373 - David Died 2373-2375 - Leave of absense from Starfleet 2375 - Reassigned to the USS Crown 2375-Current - Chief Medical Officer- USS Cross |